Stowaway (OLD DRAFT)
by wyverndragon
Summary: Somebody's stowed away in TR1...what will Lara do with him? Rated M for language, violence, and general stupidity, just to be on the safe side. (Old Draft. New Version Soon)
1. Giant Generic Disclaimer

**AN:**

**I'm feeling a bit too lazy to put**

**a disclaimer on each chapter.**

**So here's one big disclaimer**

**for the whole thing:**

_**I own nothing but the concept**_

_**of the Game-Time Continuum,**_

_**which I made up, like, a week ago.**_

_**No characters, no places, not**_

**_even the plot, really._**

**Thank you.  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 1: Bound For Trouble

**Stowaway**

**Chapter 1**

**Bound For Trouble**

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><p><strong>Calcutta, India<strong>

**January 1996**

Lara's feet tapped lightly on the polished floors of the Imperial Hotel. Why Natla insisted on having the teleconference _here_ was beyond her. Hell, she could have just dropped by the Natla Technologies office in London, but _noooo_, Natla _had_ to show off her fancy-ass technology.

She swore she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but she was probably just imagining things. _Headlines say: "Lara Croft found, delirious from boredom". Now **that's** a new one._ she thought, as she reread the same passage in her book for the fifth time. Where had that American henchman of Natla's gotten to? What was his name? Lard-face? Oh, that's right, _Larson_. She shuddered to think what his mother had been smoking when she named him.

"Now what's a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?" The American in question chose that moment to toss a copy of _Adventurer Weekly_ on the table in front of her. The headline read: "**Croft Stomps Out Bigfoot**." She could think of half a dozen witty retorts to that comment...

"Grow another two feet and get foot-long body hair."

"Try to attack me. I _dare_ you."

"Talk like an intelligent human being or just _shut up_."

"Change your name so it _doesn't_ sound like something you'd name a pet gerbil."

Unfortunately, being unreasonably rude to her henchmen would _not_ get her hired by Natla; and Lara could really usesome spare change at the moment. She might as well enjoy being "nice" to him though, and besides, leading the sucker on would be fun. "If that's the kind of attention you're looking for, you seem to be doing fine," she said, in what she hoped was a flirty tone. If she was hearing herself correctly, it sounded more prostitute-esque than flirty, but hey, the idiot Larson seemed to fall for it. She thought she heard gagging sounds, but those were probably coming from her conscience. _If it hasn't already died from lack of use, poor thing._

"Truth is, it ain't me that wants you." Damn. The idiot opened his mouth again. She responded with a non-committal "hmmm?" because all Brits know that _that_ translates to "I don't give a damn what you're saying, but I'm to polite and British to tell you to _shut the hell up!_" in British-ish. Larson just kept on talking. "No, Miss Jacqueline Natla does! Of Natla Technologies? Ya know, creator of all things bright and beautiful!" He pulled out a laptop and started up the teleconference as he spoke.

Lara could've hugged Natla when she finally told Larson to "seal it." Granted Natla herself wasn't much better. The blond billionairess sported one of those expensive business-suits-that-reveal-far-too-much-for-it-to-just-be-about-business. She probably also had life handed to her just by being born in the right family. Not that Lara didn't, but ... it was _different_, okay? Besides, Lara had thrown it all away for a life in archeology. And for the guns, the bikes, and shiny things... you're missing the point! Point being that Natla was obnoxious, and Lara only agreed to work for her because she was broker than she would like to reveal publicly. That.

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><p><strong>AN: So? Thoughts? Constructive Criticism? Anything? Cookies?<strong>

**Apologies for Lara's mouth, she's having a bad day...week...month...life.**


	3. Chapter 2: Big Doors of Doom

**Stowaway**

**Chapter 2**

**Big Doors of Doom  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Andes Mountains, Peru<strong>

**February 1996**

That meeting with Natla was how Lara found herself trekking through the Andes, rather than sitting at home on the piles of crates that held all her stuff. Her Peruvian guide wasn't helping, chattering all the way up the mountain about something or another. She didn't know, she didn't speak Spanish. She also had no idea _why_ she had agreed to wear that stupid hooded cloak. There was no use for the thing, and it certainly didn't keep out the cold.

_Ahh! Fuck fuck fuck, cooooold! Why the **hell** didn't I wear something other than shorts and a tank top?_ Some snow found its way into her boot, and she spun around in circles, screaming and kicking. "Damn snow!" She heard laughter, stopped, and shot her guide a death glare. The laughter only got louder, and she looked around in alarm. "What the _hell_ is going on around here?"

As suddenly as it started, the laughter stopped. She sighed. Her sanity was sketchy enough as it was, she didn't need strange voices mocking her. Her guide resumed his jabbering, and she later realized that they had arrived. Not that there was much to arrive _at_, aside from a huge pair of double doors, snow, snow, and _more_ _snow_. She chucked a couple nuevo sols* at her guide, one of which hit him squarely on the temple. He promptly fell over. _Whoops._

She then proceeded to take a grappling hook and several feet of rope out of her backpack. After a good ten minutes of tripping over tangled rope and cursing, Lara finally managed to catch the top of the doors with the hook. She scaled the cliffside, attempting to find some sort of mechanism to open the doors. Finding a promising-looking design in the doors' carvings, she leaned over to press it, nearly falling off the rope in the process. At least the doors opened.

Her guide, who had miraculously regained consciousness, peered into the darkness. He slowly backed away and started screaming. Four or five silvery-gray wolves burst out of the cave, with demonic looks in their eyes. _Why can't there be** butterflies** behind the big doors of doom **just this once**?_ Lara pulled a small knife out of her boot, cutting the rope suspending her above the doors. Unfortunately, she also managed to cut a neat slice in her stomach, resulting in the knife being flung out over the mountains, followed by "**_Stupid bloody goddamn piece of...!_**"

Somewhere in a valley far below, a poor farmer's prayers for food were answered by a condor plummeting down into his field, with Lara's knife stuck straight through it.

Lara had abandoned her cloak far above, after finding it stuck on the grappling hook. She landed in the snow, pulled out her trusty pistols, and quickly disposed of the wolves. Her guide lay in the snow, long forgotten. After a swift kick to the midsection failed to rouse him, she pronounced him dead, and proceeded to loot the body. She found nothing of interest other than a few pesos and a stupid-looking hat.

Standing up, she turned toward the open doors. _Let's get this over with so I can go home and do something else. Sleep, maybe._ She walked into the caves, the snow crunching under her feet. Somebody was sitting on a rock just inside, with a smirk that traveled all the way up to his eyes. His bright blue eyes.

"What the...?"

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><p><strong>AN: This would totally be what would happen if I were to tomb raid irl!<br>**

**Reviews, hugs, cookies, and guesses as to the Stowaway's identity appreciated :)  
><strong>

*** Nuevo Sols are the currency of Peru, according to Google. And we all know how right Google is... lol  
><strong>


	4. Chapter 3: Memories and Empty Threats

AN: The longest chapter to date, and probably the least humorous in the whole fic. Humor will return soon though ;)

**ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess**- Many thanks! Good to know someone's reading this! And about the guess... stop reading my mind! It's cheating! :)

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><p><strong>Stowaway<br>**

**Chapter 3**

_**Memories & Empty Threats**_

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><p>The mysterious stranger barely had time to blink before he was face-to-face with the business end of Lara's pistol. "You. Talk. Who are you? You don't belong here." He didn't appear fazed by the weapon, and merely continued to smirk at her. <em>Not that surprising. Most people don't realize how much punch these little guns can pack.<em>

"Last time I checked, _you_ didn't belong here either. Unless you're actually Qualopec and you just got a sex change and some _serious_ plastic surgery." His voice had a strange edge to it, almost familiar. And she would think she'd remember anyone who had the nerve to be that cheeky to her, even if she was pointing a gun in his face. _Especially_ since she was pointing a gun in his face. _Not that he's unarmed_, she noted, as she saw the handgun at his side, and some sort of disk-thing that looked potentially dangerous, depending on what it did. "You didn't answer my question."

"You're too curious for your own good, Croft." She blinked, and her mask of apathy faltered, if only for a fraction of a second. _How does he know my name?_

He grimaced. There was surprise in her expression, anger, and what he thought might have been a bit of fear, but no recognition whatsoever. _**Damn. Now what? How am I supposed to explain things?**_ He shrugged mentally. Giving her his name was as good a start as any, and he wouldn't put it past her not to color the walls with his brains if he continued to be silent. "My name is Kurtis Trent. I am…was…will be?…your partner, about four years in your future."

"Lovely. Bloody _wonderful_." That explained why she remembered him, but didn't. Stupid continuum. "How did you get in then?"

He shrugged. "I hacked the mainframe."

"Is that even possible?"

"It is _now_."

She sighed. Things were going downhill fast. "So let me get this straight. You're my accomplice from five games in the future…"

"Four games. Four years, four games."

"No, _five_ games. The timeline goes haywire in the fourth."

"Really? _Damn_."

"As I was saying, _if_ you are who you say you are, why are you here? To ask me nicely to _not_ shoot you on sight when I'm supposed to meet you?"

He was smirking again. Damn him. Damn him and his smirks, his dark hair and blue eyes that looked oh-so-familiar, yet she couldn't quite place. Why did she have a suspicion that she wouldn't be rid of him anytime soon? And why, despite her instincts, could she not bring herself to shoot the man?

"If memory serves, it was _me_ disarming _you_ when we ran into each other."

"If you aren't here for a reason, you can leave now."

"And how do you suggest I do that?"

"You said you hacked in, hack back _out_."

"Little problem there. Don't have a computer."

She turned around, bound up her braid, and started down the tunnel. "Well don't look at _me_. _I'm _just the tomb raider." She couldn't help but smile to herself as she left him where he stood. If he froze to death, she wouldn't feel guilty for killing him, and she had work to do.

"So you're just going to leave me here?"

"That was the general plan, yeah."

"Any particular reason?"

She heard the crunch of boots in the snow behind her and knew he was following her. Judging by the volume, he wasn't far behind her. "I don't need help from anyone. _Especially_ a stalker." He quickly stepped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. "Not a stalker," he said, extending a hand and smiling, "an ally." She looked from his outstretched hand to his face, startled. Brown eyes met blue. Before she could think twice, she reached out and shook his hand – with a bit more force than necessary – sealing the unspoken agreement between the two.

"You mess anything up, and I will _personally_ end your sorry existence."

She knew she was making empty threats. She trusted him absolutely, yet she had no idea why. As they walked down the snowy tunnel, little did they know they were thinking the exact same thing:

_What have I gotten myself into?_

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><p><strong>Reviews, hugs, and cookies all appreciated :)<strong>


	5. Chapter 4: Caves of the Semi Crazed

**AN: This chapter is _friggin huge,_ so I'm updating it in parts. Thoughts in bold are Kurtis's, non-bold is Lara. I think that's it...**

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><p><strong>Stowaway<br>**

**Chapter 4**

**Caves of the****Semi-Crazed**_**  
><strong>_

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><p>The two adventurers continued down the passage; the only sound to be heard was their boots on the snow beneath them. Kurtis's mind was racing. <em><strong>Here I am, stuck in a tomb with Lara, and she <strong>__**hasn't**__** killed me yet.**_ However, the tomb raider herself seemed to be completely ignoring him, and the silence was so thick it could have been tangible.

"So…what are we looking for exactly?"

"Some circular artifact in Qualopec's tomb."

As she finished her sentence, she turned to face him, realizing she had probably said too much. _Hang on a second… didn't he say something earlier about Qualopec?_

She pulled out one of her guns, aiming it directly at his face. "How do _you_ know about Qualopec?"

"Croft, _put the gun __**down**_." If looks could kill, he would already be six feet under. She didn't even flinch, much less imply that she would holster her weapon.

"Explanation. _Now._"

_**But then again, I may have spoken too soon…**_ "I was there in India, okay?"

"And you _aren't_ a stalker." Despite her sardonic tone, she chose to holster her gun as he had asked.

"I prefer the term 'guardian angel'."

"I hate you, Trent."

"It's mutual."

Silence again. And she hadn't shot him. _I think I might be going soft._ She stormed off down the tunnel.

Kurtis was left standing in the snow-covered caves, confused. _**What did I do, exactly?**_ He shrugged, it didn't really matter. She would probably inform him later, or something like that. And hold a gun to his head while she was at it, no doubt. The thought made him smile. _**Typical Lara.**_

_Why am I so angry? He didn't even __**do**__ anything!_ She was totally losing it, yet again. And if she was angry, it would lead to carelessness. The phrase sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember from where. _Going crazy again. Stop it!_ She stopped walking, looking down at her feet. The tracks near them made her freeze with horror. _Fucking wolf tracks. This is __**not**__ my day._ She looked around, proceeding with caution, her hands on her pistols. She would not let anything get to her. Not now, not ever.

He saw her stop partway down the passage, and jogged to catch up with her. She didn't even look at him to acknowledge his presence. "Took you long enough." Her tone wasn't nearly as scathing as he expected it to be. He grunted in response. _What exactly is that supposed to mean?_

After following the tunnel for several minutes, Lara put out an arm to stop him. "What?"

She cast a gaze over the carved walls before replying carefully, "Something's not right…"

When she stepped forward, a dart shot out of the wall to her left, whistling as it went. He quickly pulled her back before it could hit her, and the hall came to life with puffs of dust and not-so-little darts.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Checking for traps…what else would I be doing?"

"You could've been hurt!"

She ignored his protests and quickly set down the trapped hallway in a quick series of jumps, emerging on the other side unscathed. His jaw dropped, while she turned around and gave him a smirk. "You coming, or are you just gonna stand there?"

Grimacing at the prospect of getting hit, he nodded. He spent a few seconds watching the darts, and when the opportunity presented itself, ran like hell. Darts whizzed past, but miraculously none hit him. He was almost to the end of the hallway, just a few more steps…

He had misjudged somewhere, and was too far forward when the next dart was ejected from the wall. It lodged itself in his shoulder, and pain shot down his arm. _**Fuck!**_

Lara tried her best to keep from bursting out laughing, but her eyes betrayed her amusement. Kurtis didn't look terribly pleased with his predicament.

"I hate you Croft."

She gave up trying, and grinned. "It's mutual."

Had his shoulder not been in pain, he might have come up with some retort; however his main concern at the moment was getting the damn thing out of said shoulder. Surprisingly enough, the dart came out easily, and the wound was barely bleeding at all. He rolled his shoulder experimentally, most of the pain was gone as well. Lara snatched the dart out of his hand and started to examine it.

"Fairly aerodynamic, at least enough to fly straight. Dull tip, but obviously propelled with enough force to break skin. Probably intended to cause enough pain to deter intruders rather than be fatal." Having finished her inspection, she snapped the dart and dropped the pieces.

_**So the guy who designed this place was a total asshole. **__**Lovely**__**.**_

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><p><em><em>**Hugs to all who review!  
><strong>


	6. Ch4 Part 2

**UPDATE: Despite evil quarterlies and two irritating vorpal bunnies that need dealt with (like plot bunnies, only awesomer :P), I'm updating! YAY!  
><strong>

**Raini: I think that was one of my fav parts too. More goodness to come :)**

**Jess: Your wish has been granted by the magical wyverndragon fairy! Hugs to everyone! :D  
><strong>

**Ferilium: Actually got the idea from Zip in TRL, but it sorta fit as a Kurtis line too... :)**

**NOTE: Apparently one can only review once on a chapter, so I'm splitting up the pieces... ah well  
><strong>

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><p><em>(LAST TIME ON STOWAWAY...)<strong><br>**_

_**So the guy who designed this place was a total asshole. **__**Lovely**__**.**_

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><p>Kurtis stepped deliberately on the broken dart as they continued on and turned the corner. Their survival of the trap was only rewarded by snow and more wolf tracks. He suspected he wasn't the only one unnerved by said tracks. Lara seemed rather twitchy, and her hands seemed to stay near her pistols. Personally, he couldn't blame her.<p>

Despite any normal instincts, she had a feeling telling her to follow the wolf prints. She carefully started climbing up the crumbling piles of rocks to her left. When she reached the top, she looked back over her shoulder, and only saw empty caves. _Where the hell has he gotten to?_

After spinning around and assuring herself that Kurtis was not, in fact, standing behind her just to startle and annoy her, she sighed and scrambled down to the ground. "What are you doing _now_?"

He was walking around a cavernous room beyond the wolf tracks. The area was mostly empty, aside from more rock in the near corner, and a sloped formation on the other side of the room. He didn't respond to her question, continuing to look around instead. "Hey, earth to Trent."

When he looked over at her, she jabbed her thumb in the general direction of the rock pile. "Tomb's over there."

"How do you know that?"

"Call it archeologist's intuition."

"You're following _wolf tracks_! What are you, nuts?"

She frowned and crossed her arms in front of her. "Last time I checked, it's _my_ job to get this thing, not yours."

"Sorry to hold you up then, I just thought there might be something useful here." She mostly ignored his sarcastic retort and whirled around, moving back toward the rock pile. If her braid hadn't been tied up, it might have hit him in the face. _Maybe I should leave it down, just for that._ She couldn't help but grin maliciously.

**_Brilliant going, Trent_**, he thought. **_Couldn't you have just listened to her for once? I'm sure there's something here though. That's irrelevant. There's something here!_**

**_Goddammit!_** **_That's it. I'm changing my other thought self's text to underlined. Stupid internal conversations._**

**_There's something hereeee…_**

**_Shut the hell up._**

**_No._**

As the eternally obnoxious mental Kurtises yelled at each other, his physical self decided to wander around the open cave. He eventually made it to the far side of the area, and found himself facing a high opening by the sloped formation. **_I told you so._**

"Something like _that_, for example." Lara turned around from halfway up the rock pile, and groaned mentally before hopping down once again. From the far side of the room, he was gesturing to something on the left wall.

Her jaw dropped in surprise when she saw the hole in the wall, but her expression quickly morphed into something that resembled glee. _How the hell did he find that?_

She jogged over to the corner, Kurtis hot on her heels. It all made sense, the rock formation, the hidden area, and her compulsion to go up the rocks back in the other cavern.

"I don't think you're gonna be able to reach that. Need a boost?" His question was answered when Lara quickly flipped onto the slope behind her, leaping off, and grabbing the edge of the opening, before lifting her legs up over her head and onto the ledge above.

**_Whoa…Damn._** Kurtis resisted the urge to slap himself in the face. That was the kind of mentality that would get him killed, either via carelessness or by Lara herself. "So…um, what's up there?"

She reappeared in the opening, quickly dropping down to the ground and landing with a solid crunch. "Not much, a secret and a medipack."

"A what?"

"A…medipack."

"No, not that. The…whatsit, the, the…_secret_."

"You know…a secret area, with bonus stuff."

"You mean like a glitched area?"

"No, a _secret_. A special area put there _specifically_ to be hidden."

Kurtis shrugged. "That makes absolutely _no_ sense, but oh well."

She grimaced as they walked back to the rock pile and the wolf tracks. "Tomb Raider must _really_ be going down the tubes if they got rid of the _secrets_."

He still had no idea what she was talking about.

_[...TO BE CONTINUED...]_

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><p><strong>Hugs to all who review!<strong>**  
>Gonna go see about updating ze play now... (UPDATED! YAY! GO CHECK IT OUT!)<strong>_**  
><strong>_


	7. Ch4 Part 3

**AN: I'm back! For good this time! I still don't own anybody! Exclamation point!**

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><p>Lara became aware of all the scratches and scrapes she had accumulated as she scrambled up the rock pile for the third time that day. Judging by the loud scuffle, followed by a thump and several muffled yet colorful curses, she guessed Kurtis had fallen flat on his face. She stifled a laugh; the poor man would be a hindrance when navigating the traps in the tomb, but for now his misfortune was more amusing than anything else. Once she reached the top, she turned around, intending to help her companion.<p>

_**That's going to leave a bruise.**_ He heaved himself up the heap of rocks to the tunnel above, ignoring Lara's concerned, albeit amused, expression and outstretched hand.

As they were walking down the tunnel, some movement caught his eye up ahead. He rested his hand on his gun, but it didn't dispel his unease. Lara seemed totally unconcerned.

When they reached a fork in the passage, three bats dropped from the ceiling and flew toward her with a screech. She grinned ferally, and pulled out her pistols, spinning them over her fingertips as she quickly clicked off the safeties. Two bats dropped as she pulled each trigger once. Before she could turn on the third bat, she heard another gunshot and felt something whiz past her ear. The bat fell to the ground with a soft thump. She turned to see Kurtis holstering his gun like nothing had happened. The weapon itself was unlike any other she knew of. _Probably a prototype._ For some reason this didn't surprise her.

She was about to continue along the passage when she realized there was another path to the left that she had ignored. The path didn't appear to lead to anything but a snow covered wall, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else there. After a few minutes of searching for hidden buttons or pressure plates (she found none), she happened to look up, and gasped. Above her head was a little alcove in the cave, and she had a fairly good idea what was inside. She didn't notice Kurtis had moved beside her until he spoke. "How're you going to get up there?"

She shrugged, not having planned that far ahead quite yet. After a moment of examining the wall, she grinned. A step to the left put her on the highest pile of snow, and if she jumped just right…

Her left hand caught the edge, just barely, and she pulled herself over, standing up and dusting her knees. Kurtis released the breath he was unaware he had been holding. _**I need to calm down. Jeez.**_ He called up to her, "Anything?"

"Not much just a secr-EEEEK!" She screeched in surprise when a bat dived at her face before shooting it. Hearing a shriek, then gunshots, Kurtis pushed himself up the walk telekinetically, drawing his gun in the process. All he saw was a slightly irritated Lara and a dead bat.

She turned to see Kurtis behind her, gun in hand and fuming. "What? It startled me!"

He holstered his weapon, biting back a scathing retort. _**This is getting ridiculous.**_ Lara rolled her eyes at him, turned, and picked up the medipack behind her. Kurtis followed her back down into the tunnel, landing on the snow with a _thump._

The passage continued on to the left, and the snow beneath their feet soon became stone. They soon arrived in a small room with a column in the center, and walls draped in greenery. Parts of the floor were too sloped to stand on easily, as Kurtis found out when he slid down into the room, less than gracefully, his arms swinging around in a futile attempt to regain balance. Lara tried to cover the grin forming on her face by examining the central column, but after he muttered "Stupid _floors_," she couldn't help but laugh. Kurtis was less than amused.

After a little searching, Lara found an opening in the floor, covered by ivy. She motioned Kurtis over and they hopped through the vines, walking down some stairs into a small room. At the end was a carved door, and a switch on the wall next to it. _Pull the switch to open the door. Simple enough._

He saw her step to pull the switch, and cringed. Although the switch appeared to be there to open the door, he couldn't help the other scenarios running through his head, all of which involved painful death when she threw that switch. The old mechanism squeaked slightly when she pushed the lever down, and he sucked in a breath, waiting for an inevitable click…

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><p><strong>Omigosh cliffy...sort of, not really. We all know what that switch does, it's just fun to torture Kurtis :)<strong>

**Reviews, hugs and cookies appreciated!  
><strong>


	8. Ch4 Part 4

**AN: The other mental Kurtis is back by popular demand (and it's really fun to have him argue with himself, yeah, I'm evil)  
>And from my best guess, there'll be two more parts to Chapter 4, so maybe when I put up Ch5P1 I'll combine them all or something. Anyway, here's more madness :D<strong>

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><p>Kurtis released the breath he had been holding when the carved door swung open without incident. Lara shot him a grin, as she walked into the room beyond, almost into another of those damn bats. He pulled out his Boran and shot the thing before she started shrieking again. She whirled around at the shot, and upon seeing the creature, cringed a little. Kurtis didn't need to read her mind to understand the meaning behind her sheepish grin. <em>Ooops…<em>

Much to his surprise, he found himself grinning along with her. **_Even though she _is_ a bit insane._**

**_She's cute when she's insane._**

**_Wait…what? Where did that come from?_**

**_You know I'm right._**

He came back to reality to notice Lara snapping her fingers in front of his face. He blinked a couple times and waved her hand away from him. "You zoned out there."

"Sorry. Thinking."

"Don't do that too often," she deadpanned. "You might strain something." He shot her an irritated look, and she laughed.

The room they had entered was small, with a few steps in the center up to the raised section of floor on the other side. There was a large section of the right wall that was blocked off by a huge fence; the thing was easily 10 feet tall and at least as wide. The room on the other side of it was enormous, with a pair of double doors at the other end.

Kurtis gestured to the other room, "That where we going?" She nodded thoughtfully in response.

He reached out, intending to test how strong the fence was when she shouted indecipherably and grabbed his other arm, yanking him forcefully away from it. "What?"

"Don't touch that thing!"

"Why not?"

"It's a quasi-dimensional gate! Weird things happen when you get too close to them!"

**_Yeah right,_** he thought,**_ like I'm gonna let some gate stop me._** He stepped towards it, ignoring her screeching, and raised both palms, sending a telekinetic blast at the gate that would have sent it flying off its mountings.

The blast rebounded off the gate and hit Kurtis head on, sending him flying back a good few feet and depositing him on his ass. Lara burst out laughing, while he glared at her.

"See? I told you," she said, in between gasps of laughter. He shook his head, and realized he was grinning again. She offered him a hand to help him up, which he took, and scrambled to his feet.

He followed her up a small ledge in one corner, and through the hallway above. The hall opened into a large room, with two bridges spanning it. The howl of wolves made Lara freeze, seeing at least two of the creatures down below. Kurtis moved beside her, drawing his gun and shooting at one of them. He took another few steps forward to better aim at it…

…and toppled over the edge, cursing every deity he could think of. He landed in a roll, killing the wolf in front of him in seconds. As he stood and caught his breath, he heard a low growl coming from behind him. Whirling around, he shot the beast leaping at him twice between the eyes, and it fell to the ground, dead. **_I hate this place._**

Lara was sitting on the platform he fell from, her legs dangling off the edge and a bemused smile on her face. "So _that's_ what you're useful for."

"My apologies, but I can't do any of that fancy-ass 'raider' shit!" he retorted scathingly. **_How dare she? I'm not useless!_**

Her smile dropped, replaced quickly by an icy glare. _Jeez, he can't take a joke._ She stood and jumped over to grab the platform by the wall. Spying a doorway in the corner beyond, she walked over to the far bridge and began to cross.

Kurtis stormed over to the closest bridge, ignoring Lara as much as possible. He reached up to pull himself onto the bridge, but it tipped wildly.

The bridge under her feet swung sharply to the left and she toppled off, landing on a very surprised Kurtis. She shoved herself away and turned to shout a long string of expletives at him, but his expression made her freeze. He looked absolutely mortified.

**_Holy shit! What have I done? She could have been hurt!_**

Her anger at him evaporated, and to his surprise, she started laughing, instead of shrieking at him like he expected. He found himself laughing, for the first time in who-knows-how-long, along with her. **_It's official. I've lost it._**

_He has a nice laugh. He should laugh more often, instead of being so damn snide._

He stood and helped her to her feet, and they made their way over to the opening in the wall. It opened into a large room with greenery hanging from the ceiling. A large pit spanned the center of the room. He walked to the edge, careful not to fall, to look down into the eyes of a large brown bear.

A bear.

A _fucking_ bear.

"I'm really beginning to hate this place."

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><p><strong>AN<strong>**: As always, reviews, hugs and cookies appreciated! Thanks to all who review!**


	9. Ch4 Part 5

**AN: *looks at update date* Well, s***. I am so sorry. Life happened, and I haven't really had much time :(  
>I promise to get back to updating as soon as humanly possible. No guarantees though.<strong> **(THE BALCONY SCENE IS ****_ALMOST_**** DONE!)**  
><strong>Huge humungous thanks to all who reviewed, favorited, etc. I believe cookies are in order.<strong>

**And without further ado, the much-deserved and awaited update!**

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><p>Lara's inspection of a nearby pillar was interrupted when Kurtis' voice echoed through the room. "Lara, you might want to be aware of this…"<p>

She grimaced, and responded without looking up from the ornate carvings on the column. "Why, does it have spikes?"

"No."

"Blades?"

"No…"

"Fire?"

"God, I hope not."

She sighed, turning away from the pillar. "What is it then? Do tell."

Kurtis frowned, looking down into the pit at the bear, which had reared up on its hind legs and growled at him menacingly. He was immensely grateful that he was up where he was. "A pit. And a bear. Mostly the bear."

Lara walked over to him, peering down with him at the animal. She scowled, pulling out her pistol, but the bear had already waddled below the ledge they stood on, and she wouldn't be able to get a clear shot. The gun was placed back in its spot on her hip, and her annoyance voiced. "Well _now_ what?"

"You know, we could leave it alone and just jump over there."

The look she gave him clearly questioned his sanity, until a proverbial light bulb flashed on over her head. "I got it. Hang on." She grabbed his hand, and swung herself out over the edge of the platform.

It took him a moment to realize she meant 'hang on' literally.

He scrambled to steady them both as she pulled out a gun with her unoccupied hand, clicking off the safety and aiming for the beast below. She felt herself slip a little, and gritted her teeth, calling up to her companion, "Let me fall and I will skin you alive!"

"If you gave me a bit more warning, that wouldn't be a problem!" He replied quickly, grabbing her forearm with his other hand as she fired a few shots. Moments later, the bear lay dead, and Lara holstered her pistol, moving to climb back up the ledge. The ledge itself had other ideas, and they were met with a jarring cracking sound, and a brief feeling of weightlessness.

**_Oh _****_hell_****_ no._**

Lara let out a shriek as she fell suddenly to the bottom of the pit, Kurtis not far behind. She hit the ground with a jolt of pain, but quickly rolled to the side to avoid being crushed by the larger man. Said man landed with a very loud _thump_, a groan, and several muttered curses. He continued for a good bit, until she interrupted his rant. "Are you quite finished?"

"I blame you for all of this."

"That's nice." She slowly got to her feet, glancing around the small pit-like area in which they had fallen. "Now unless you're injured, get up. We can't stay here all day."

With a couple last insults to whatever idiot saw fit to put a goddamn _pit_ there, he sat up carefully, thankfully finding that he hadn't broken anything. He looked up out of the pit, wondering if he could boost Lara up to the edge himself, or if he would have to use his powers to get them both out. Unfortunately for him, she had gotten a bit impatient and demanded he "get up off your ass", because "there's something over there that looks important." When she found she couldn't pull him up, dislocating his arm or no, she settled for repeatedly jabbing him in the side. "Alright, alright! Jeez, woman."

The interesting looking something happened to be a small hallway off one end of the pit. As soon as Lara set foot in the hall, another screeching bat dived for her, but was pierced in two directions by two different bullets, the mangled corpse dropping like a stone to the snow-covered floor.

**_It didn't stand a chance,_** Kurtis thought dryly, as they rounded the bend in the hall. Lara's thoughts were decidedly less sympathetic.

_Payback's a bitch._

The small hallway led to a dead end, with an obvious pressure plate in the middle of crumbling rubble. Perhaps the hallway once branched off elsewhere, but there was no way to find out where without some _serious_ mining equipment. _Or possibly explosives. I wonder if Kurtis has any with him._

Potentially destructive trains of thought aside, Lara examined the pressure plate for traps, scooping up a small medipack beside it as she did. After a minute or so, she supposed it was safe enough, and gingerly stepped on the edge of it. Nothing happened. She could practically _feel_ Kurtis' amused smirk at her back, and stepped off the plate, blowing a strand of hair out of her face in exasperation. "Okay, now what?"

"Here, let me try." He slipped past her, walking onto the center of the pressure plate, which sunk into the ground with a click. Both of them tensed, waiting for a trap of some sort to lash out, but the only result was the solid wall in front of them swinging open. Kurtis threw another smirk over his shoulder as he walked through, obviously laughing internally at her glare. "Well," he said, "would you look at that." Begrudgingly, she followed him through the doorway.

**_This looks awfully familiar._** The two found they were back in the room with the bridges they had passed through not too long ago. They carefully made their way back to the edge of the pit, surprisingly without incident.

Starting a bit back from the edge, Lara ran towards it and took a flying leap, landing safely on the other side. The scuffling noise on her right told her that Kurtis had made it across too. On this side of the pit were more carved pillars on either side of a set of steps, leading down towards an opening in the back wall. She looked over her shoulder, debating whether or not to taunt her companion; the internal debate didn't last long. "I'm impressed. You made it across." Her sarcastic tone belied the apparent compliment in her words.

"Same to you. Wasn't sure you were up to it." He seemed to have joined in her game, responding in kind, down to the teasing tone.

"Excuse me?"

"Considering your terrible fear of bats and all." He was grinning like a Cheshire cat, knowing he had caught her off guard. It irritated her.

"They _startle_ me!"

She never got to hear his reply to that, as they were interrupted by a low howl from the other side of the wall. Both adventurers froze and turned cautiously toward the sound, in time to see another pair of wolves charge straight at them. The next few seconds passed in a frenzied haze of howls, blood and gunfire, leaving the two wolves belly-up on the stairs.

Lara shrugged and holstered her guns, moving down the steps towards the opening. She pulled the greenery aside, revealing an even larger room, where the floor and columns had collapsed in places, and a pair of double doors stood well above the ground on one of the remaining sections of flooring. A nest of rubble, grass and bones down on the ground showed where the wolves must have lived, trapped in the ruins for who-knows-how long. The remains of a set of stairs ended abruptly in rubble, on the other side it lead up to a switch on the opposite wall.

Following Lara through the wall, Kurtis noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw a medipack lying innocently on the landing above, tucked between the pillars. Glancing ahead at Lara, he quickly snapped his hand backward, sending the medipack sailing into his outstretched palm before slipping through the hanging vines into the room beyond.

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><p><strong>Reviews are always appreciated, usually replied to, and frequently help the writing process *hint*hint* :P<strong>


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